PhilosophyBook · 1785
Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals
Immanuel Kant
Kant looks for the supreme principle of morality and finds it in acting only on rules you could will everyone to follow, and in treating people never merely as means. Short, dense, and the single most argued-over text in modern ethics.
Why you should read this
This is Kant's short, dense introduction to his ethical system, developing the categorical imperative as a test of whether an action could be universalized without contradiction. It is usually assigned before his longer Critique of Practical Reason, since it lays out the core argument in far fewer pages.
- Field
- Philosophy
- Form
- Non-fiction
- Published
- 1785
- Themes
- EthicsPhilosophy
